The Nation: Rand Paul's Kentucky Derby

[sailingaway]

http://www.thenation.com/article/154605/rand-pauls-kentucky-derby

It misstates a few of Rand's positions along the Dem meme, (a 'switch' to say he'll vote for McConnell, etc) but generally, it is well written, and not too happy with Conway. Clearly the author seems to think that if the Dems lose Kentucky, at least they might get someone interesting out of the bargain.

It ends:

" The first question for any Democrat has to be, Why has the government done so little about unemployment and restoring consumer confidence? Maybe Jack Conway can answer that better in the next two months than my brief experience of him on the stump showed. Or, as Conway evidently hopes, maybe Rand will order a Jack Daniel's and call it bourbon, or set fire to the Daniel Boone National Forest.

If not, it's like the Republican primary never ended, in a way. There are still two Republicans fighting it out: one young, native-born, rich and (this time) a handsome lawyer, and one a quirky outsider pushing economic fundamentalism. We know how that race turned out the first time."

[Knightskye]

Paul, with his neatly groomed black aide

Hmm. That's not good journalism.

[specsaregood]

Hmm. That's not good journalism.

sounds racist.

[sailingaway]

sounds racist.

I thought the same thing. Why SHOULDN'T he be black? Or well groomed? How were the other people in the room groomed?

[jct74]

Link in OP is dead. Here is a working link:
http://www.thenation.com/article/154605/rand-pauls-kentucky-derby

[AJ Antimony]

The article was much nicer than what I was expecting

[BenIsForRon]

How were the other people in the room groomed?

hahahaha

Anyways, it was good article that shows how a more intelligent liberal might view the race. Keep in mind that 99% of the population doesn't understand Rand like we do: A guy who's playing careful politics so he can become a senator and promote revolutionary economic and foreign policy.

This guy is simply intrigued by Rand, while at the same time being really disappointed in Conway.

[TheTyke]

Hmm, I didn't like the article much at all. I saw way too much thinly-veiled snarkiness in it, and it got worse as it went along... but then again, I'm not familiar with the website, so perhaps they have natural opposition to liberty themes.

[specsaregood]

hahahaha
Anyways, it was good article that shows how a more intelligent liberal might view the race.

You must not have read the same article as me. And calling him an intelligent liberal is pushing it a bit.

Although I did like this line:


Paul gave the speech without notes, calmly, almost as if he did not see his audience. He's like a dad who's scariest when he talks softly—Paul's rhetoric blows on the cold ember of an anger bitterly remembered.

[sailingaway]

Hmm, I didn't like the article much at all. I saw way too much thinly-veiled snarkiness in it, and it got worse as it went along... but then again, I'm not familiar with the website, so perhaps they have natural opposition to liberty themes.

They are a Dem site, through and through. You have to read it in light of that fact.

[RandFan]

Pretty decent article from a lefty magazine like The Nation. I liked this portion:


The race has scrambled the politics of the two parties. Conway says he would have voted for the Iraq War, while Paul says he would have voted against it; Conway supports the Patriot Act, while Paul has criticized it as an "overreach"; Conway crusades against marijuana, calling it a "gateway drug," while Paul has said that ten- and twenty-year sentences for possession are too harsh—a mildly countercultural stance that was only highlighted by a GQ article depicting the college-age Rand as a pot-smoking, girl-hazing, Christian-mocking devotee of the "Aqua Buddha." Worst of all, Conway says he would gladly extend the Bush tax cuts for the very rich for "five, eight, maybe ten" years—a position thoroughly in sync with Paul's anti-tax crusade.

Finally some on the left are waking up to fact that while Conway may support some generic mainstream progressive causes, when you dig more deeply CONway is really a progressive CONjob.

It also definitively states Conway's support for the Patriot Act, which unbelievably has only been reported in one other news source that I know of (Conway's CJ profile, where they kind of beat around the bush in saying he supports it).